Sunday, November 7, 2010

This is a joint giveaway with Hobo Mama Reviews and Natural Parents Network. You may enter at one site only. Please find the section marked "Win it!" for the mandatory main entry and optional bonus entries.

WILL TRAVEL special event: I am featuring a few special travel items for review and giveaway that I was able to use on my trip with my three-year-old son and eight-year-old niece this summer. Any of these items would make a fabulous Christmas gift or be ideal for holiday travel!

Glitterful Felt Stories is offering my readers a giveaway of a travel flannel board and felt story of the winner's choice!

Glitterful Felt Stories features incredible hand-crafted felt boards and story characters that are sure to spark your child's imagination. If you remember Flannelgraph stories from childhood Sunday school classes (anyone?), this is similar in concept but in a child-usable size and child-oriented themes, generally from children's literature or songs. The felt characters stick to the flannel board and can be rearranged at will. Felt boards make a wonderful tool to keep children engaged and happy during a long wait — such as on a trip, in a waiting room, or at a restaurant. They also make storytelling fun, because it brings the characters to life, letting you or your children "act out" the story in a tactile and visually satisfying way.
I actually won a Glitterful Felt Stories prize in another blog's giveaway (thanks, Katydid and Kid!). I was so impressed with the quality and care that went into making these one-of-a-kind pieces — and of the potential for child amusement on trips — that I contacted the owner, Shelby, and asked if she'd mind if I did a giveaway on my own site as part of my travel theme. As you can see, she agreed to give the same prize I won to one of my readers!

When I received my travel board and story, I couldn't resist opening it right away instead of waiting for our trip. This almost proved fatal (ok, not really) — it's just that Mikko took to it so strongly I wasn't sure he'd let me put it away until the trip! He even loves wearing the travel roll like a cape (no, truly) with the ribbons that close it tied around his shoulders, flying around the house like some sort of pirate superhero. Yes, that's an unorthodox use of the travel board, but kids' imaginations are priceless like that. I love when a product is open-ended enough to allow for such diverse interpretations of use!

Untying the portable travel roll. We chose pirates. Arr! The exterior, when rolled, is a fun fabric, and the other side is high-quality felt. The stitching seems really solid, and the fabric feels plush. You can roll the felt pieces up in the board and tie it with the attached ribbon so you can take your stories with you! The size of our travel board is 10.5 inches by 17 inches, so a perfect lap or airplane tray size, as I can attest.

We went with Caps for Sale as our felt story. I simply couldn't resist, because Mikko has that book memorized and yells — no, seriously, yells! – "Caps for sale! Fifty cents a ca-aap!" the whole time you try to read it to him, which cracks me up no end.

If you're familiar with the book, you can see Glitterful Felt really went all out on including every item you need to retell the story: the tree, the peddler, the monkeys, and all his colored hats, including his own. The only problem I have is fitting all the pieces on the travel board!

Mikko puts a hat on a monkey.

I put a hat on Mikko. (I'm like that.)

Here Mikko is, happily playing monkeys on the plane ride.

Besides the folding travel boards, Glitterful Felt Stories also offers wall-hanging and aluminum-backedflannel boards for use in a home or classroom (or a home classroom). They would also be great for a library story hour or playgroup. For most families, I think the patented travel boards would get the most use, because you could use them for storytime and then tuck them away; plus, you can bring them with you whenever you want a story and playtime on the go! They have some new larger-size versions if you get a character-heavy story as I did!

Here are some examples of the felt stories that Glitterful Felt Stories offers, to give you an idea of the range:

They even sell cute little glove puppets to make story or song time even more interactive!

And I thought this was a marvelous idea for young children and particularly for children with special needs who could use a visual aid for performing routine tasks. They offer Picture Learning Stories that outline the steps needed to complete a certain task, such as getting ready in the morning, going to the potty, or using good hygiene.

Anyway, that should give you an idea of the wide range you'll have trouble choosing from if you win!

BUY IT!

Portable folding travel boards are $12 for the regular size, $14 for the larger. Aluminum and wall-hanging boards range from $14.99 to $19.99.

Felt stories generally start around $7.00 (although some are on sale for even less), and most are in the $10-$14 range, depending on complexity. Some of the felt pieces are "printed," so the pieces are a laminated and felted drawing (that's what our Caps for Sale ones are), and some are entirely cut out of felt and decorated with felt and glitter (hence the name!). I think they're all pretty dang impressive and seriously cannot imagine how they manage to make and sell such a variety at such low prices. Glitterful Felt is family owned and operated by Shelby Barone, a former preschool teacher and mom to three young children, and three employees. Seriously, how do they make these custom products so fast and so professionally? It's a mystery to me!

Shipping in the U.S. runs $9.95 for a felt board, $2 for one story and $0.50 for each additional story, plus a $1 handling fee. There is free U.S. shipping on orders over $50. If you sign up for the newsletter, you'll find they often offer shipping promotions and free stories with purchase. International shipping starts at $5 for one story and $0.50 for each additional story.

WIN IT!

For your own chance to win a felt story and a regular-size folding travel felt board of your choice from Glitterful Felt Stories, enter in the comments below! Contest is open to the U.S. only. (Sorry, everyone else! There are more international contests on the way, for reals.)

MAIN ENTRY:Visit Glitterful Felt Stories (or any of the other shops mentioned above) and tell me which felt story you'd love to win! I'll warn you, it's going to be tough to choose.

Leave an email address in at least one of your comments if it's not clearly visible on your profile or linked web page so I can contact you if you win. (You can write it like this to foil spambots: mail {at} hobomama {dot} com or similar.)

This is a joint giveaway with Hobo Mama Reviews and Natural Parents Network, a new site co-founded by Lauren of Hobo Mama & Dionna of Code Name: Mama and intending to bring together those interested in attachment parenting and a natural lifestyle. You may enter at one site only, and we'll be recording IP addresses to ensure that there are no duplicate entries. That said, please do check out and enjoy both sites!

BONUS ENTRIES, to increase your chance of winning (leave a separate comment for each so I can count them all):

Tweet about this giveaway (up to 5 times total, at least 24 hours apart). You can use the retweet button at the top of the post or tweet this text: Enter to #win a charming felt story & travel board from @GlitterfulFelt via @Hobo_Mama & @NatParNet! http://bit.ly/9akWMK {12.1, US}

Put my Hobo Mama button on your website or add http://www.HoboMama.com to your text blogroll for 2 extra entries each. The HTML code for the button is in the sidebar. Leave your site URL in the comment so I can visit.

Put the Natural Parents Network badge on your website or add http://NaturalParentsNetwork.com to your text blogroll for 2 extra entries each. The HTML code for the badge is on the front page of NaturalParentsNetwork.com. Leave your site URL in the comment.

RULES:

Contest open to United States street mailing addresses only.

Contestants may enter at either Hobo Mama Reviews or Natural Parents Network but not both. Entries will be combined for the drawing of a single winner.

Leave each entry as a separate comment so I can count them all.

For actions like following and subscribing, if you already follow or subscribe, just let me know in your comment.

For tasks that garner you multiple entries, you can copy and paste the comment with a #1, #2, etc.

You don't have to do any of the bonus entries, but you do have to complete the first mandatory one.

I will pick the winner through Random.org after the contest closes and send an email notification. Leave an email address in your comment if it's not clearly visible on your profile or linked web page so I can contact you if you win. If I can't reach a winner or don't hear back within a couple days, I'll draw a new name.

Disclosure: I received a free Glitterful Felt Stories story
and travel board as a giveaway prize.
I try to seek out only products I think you would find
relevant and useful to your life as a natural parent.
If I don't like a product, I won't be recommending it to you.
That's how I roll. See my full disclosure policy here.

I would love the 5 little ducks board! My little cousin is almost 2 1/2 and he's my little shadow. He loves to do animal sounds and counting. (or trying to at least!) This would be such a great christmas gift for him! He would be SO excited! :)

I know the contect just ended, but I wanted to say that I too remember the flannel boards from childhood Sunday school classes. I was search from them for my homeschool classroom & ran across your give away. :) Thanks for sharing!!

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Lauren Wayne

Lauren Wayne, writer and natural parent. Riding the rails with my husband, Crackerdog Sam, and my two hobo boys: Mikko Lint Picker and Alrik Irontrousers the Land Pirate. Trying every day to parent intentionally and with grace.